Three young brothers shot dead in south Thailand

NARATHIWAT, Thailand (AFP) - Three brothers including a three-year-old have been shot dead in Thailand's violence-plagued deep south and their pregnant mother injured, police said on Tuesday.

The boys, aged three, five and nine, were gunned down after returning from evening prayers Monday at a mosque in a volatile district of Narathiwat, one of three Muslim-majority southern provinces blighted by a decade-long insurgency.

Their pregnant mother and father were also shot in the attack but survived, according to police in Bacho district.

Colonel Pramote Promin, southern region military spokesman, said he could not confirm if the deaths were related to the rebellion against Thai rule.